


Tense Beginnings

by Oracle507



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [4]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dungeons & Dragons, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons Spell Mechanics, Fantasy Racism, Female Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Female Deceit | Janus Sanders, First Meetings, Gen, Genderbending, Genderfluid Logic | Logan Sanders, I'm using DnD spells, Kinda, This fic is more set up for the rest of the AU than anything else, Wrongful Imprisonment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27613730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oracle507/pseuds/Oracle507
Summary: The paths of six people cross when a fight is accidentally started, leading to the wrongful arrest of a changeling.DnD Au: More details in the notes.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1859785
Comments: 9
Kudos: 15
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Tense Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Racism between Fantasy races (note: no fantastical race is intended to be an allegory for a real life ethnicity), anxiety, wrongful arrests.  
> This is for the prompt Wrongfully Arrested. More information will come out in future parts of this series, but here are the basics for each character:  
> Logan- Genderfluid (they/them or she/her) Half-Elf Wizard named Lorian Salmaris  
> Virgil- Female (she/her) Aasimar Paladin named Vira Enatsu. She is assumed to be Human by most people in this story, but her Aasimar traits will be featured later.  
> Patton- Male (he/him) Firbolg Cleric named Patton Heilen  
> Janus- Female (she/her) Changeling Ranger named Janus Zemiya.  
> Roman- Male (he/him) Tiefling Bard named Roman Rieta  
> Remus- Male (he/him) Tiefling Sorcerer named Remus Rieta

Lorian rarely entered a town without knowing anything about it, but in this case she had little choice. Her food supply was running low and, frankly, she wasn’t interested in spending another day in the wilderness. She relaxed a little at the sight of both elves and humans roaming the streets. That decreased the chances of anyone having a problem with her presence significantly. ‘Task List: Find a room for the night, find a reliable supplier of food, and find a library.’

Starting with the first one, she made her way to a tavern that doubled as an inn named The Dancing Owl. She ignored all of the other patrons, as well as the thick stench of alcohol and walked straight over to the bartender. He stood a couple inches taller than her, his thick beard and greasy hair marking him distinctly human, if the rounded ears weren’t enough.“Good afternoon. Who can I ask for assistance obtaining a room?” she asked.

Not looking up as he cleaned the bar, he said, “Normally, that’d be me, but we’re all out at the moment.”

Lorian glanced around the dreary place. The only spot of color she could see was the bright blonde hair of one of the servers. ‘This is not a good sign.’ “How about a library? Or a bookshop?”

He glared up at her and startled. “You’re elven?”

She tilted her head. “Half-elven. What does that have to do with my question?”

He laughed. “Nothing, I’m just not used to elves coming in here, too much beer and not enough wine. Glad to hear you’re only half, though I guess those glasses should have given that away.. elves are always a pain to deal with.”

“I was raised by my elven mother, actually, so I don’t know if your point stands.”

“Still, you’re probably better than most of them.”

“So you think heritage is more important in defining who a person is than the culture they were raised in?”

“No, that’s not what…” he shook his head. “It’s that exact sort of thing that I was talking about. I say one small thing and you act like I just insulted your family.” 

Lorian wanted to point out that he did just do exactly that, but decided against it. While she had never been the best at picking up social cues, she’d had years of experience telling when she wasn’t wanted. “I’ll leave you to your work.” She nodded before turning towards the door.

As she left, she heard a deep feminine voice say, “I’m taking my lunch, Daren.” The doors shut behind her and she began scanning the streets for another inn. The doors opened again and she felt a tap on her shoulder. “I’ll take you to our library if you buy me lunch.” It was the same blonde woman who had been cleaning tables inside. Up close, Lorain could see that one of her eyes was black and the other was yellow. ‘Odd.’

“That sounds reasonable. I am rather lost at the moment.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed. Honestly, you’re lucky you walked into The Owl. A lady like you shouldn’t be wandering by herself.” The server held her arm out to her. “The name’s Janus. Welcome to Mynoro.”

Lorian took her hand and shook it. “Lorian Salmaris.” She let go and reached into the bookbag. She pulled out her spellbook. “And I’m far from defenseless.”

Janus smirked and pulled up the bottom of her pants to reveal a dagger sticking out of her boots. “Same here.” She stood back up. “I was right when I called you lady, right? I struggle with elves and Half-elves sometimes, though your skirt helped.”

She instinctively dug her fingers into the cloth of her skirt. “Some men do wear skirts, but you’re right that male elves rarely do. Also…” ‘I need to get used to adding this part. I barely know this person, so it’s not a loss if she reacts negatively. “She/her pronouns are good right now, but they/them is a better default whenever you don’t know how I’m feeling.”

“Understood.” Lorian barely held back a sigh of relief. Janus turned and started walking further down the street. “Follow me. I’ll tell you more about the town on the way.”

And that she did. Janus explained that the town’s population was about 40% human, 45% elf, 5% everything else. Most of the local government was elven. The town sort of split itself into a human half and an elven half long ago, with the government giving much better funding to the elven half. “I suppose I can understand your boss’s annoyance, in that case,” Lorian said.

“No, no, he’s still an asshole. Always remember to hate the government, not the people, certainly not people who have similarities to people you hate that ultimately have nothing to do with why your life sucks.. Some people can’t understand that. I would have quit a long time ago, but he’s the only one offering work around here with no experience.” She stopped in front of a tall building with large windows revealing rows and rows of books. “And here we are.”

The building appeared two-story from the outside, but inside it was clearly just one floor with a very high ceiling. The bookshelves all nearly reached the top. ‘Yes, this is certainly elven design.’ “Thank you for leading the way. Would you like me to go buy you lunch now? I don’t want to make you late.”

Janus shook her head. “The place is never busy this time of day and, frankly, Daren can’t afford to fire me. Plus, I’ve haven’t had an excuse to browse books in a long time.”

Janus followed behind Lorian as she made her way to the back of the library. As she moved in that direction, Lorian could hear the soft music someone was playing much clearly. ‘This is why I never study in elven libraries.’

Lorian finally found the section she had been looking for, Arcane History. She pulled up a ladder to look at the higher shelves. From higher up, she could see the musician in the back corner. He was a red tiefling playing a pink guitar painted with red roses and black music notes. Similarly, he wore a white shirt with pink pants and a red cloak. His ram-like horns poked slightly out of his hood. Next to him stood a green tiefling with sheep-like horns who in everything but clothes and color looked exactly like the red one. He wore a black shirt with red pants and a green cloak with a pattern couldn’t identify from this angle.

Trying (and mostly failing) to block out the music, she scanned the book selection. ‘Why do they even play right now? Barely anyone is here.’ She spotted a book titled  _ History of Transmutation Magic _ a couple shelves above her head. ‘That looks like a good start.’ She kept her eyes on the book as she put her foot on the next rung of the ladder. The second she picked the other foot up, the rung snapped under her weight. She tried to hang on to the ladder, but, as someone who rarely engaged in physical exercise, she lost her grip.

“I’ve got it!” Someone screamed, but Lorian barely heard it as she fell in slow motion. She went to cast Feather Fall when a green gas filled her vision. She hit the ground and everything went black.

* * *

‘Shit shit shit shit shit,’ Roman thought as he stood up. The elven woman had fallen unconscious, most likely from a combination of falling from that height and Remus’s Poison Spray. ‘That was probably wild magic. Don’t be mad at him. It was wild magic.’ The situations would have been bad enough if it was just the elf, but her human friend didn’t seem very happy with them. She pulled out a couple of daggers hidden on her person and charged Remus before Roman could even try to explain the situation.

Roman strummed his guitar and said in Infernal, “You... stupid, ugly person.” He knew Vicious Mockery required a string of insults to work, but it always felt weird to do that. The human paused her attack to clunch her head. Roman stood in front of Remus and said, in common this time, “Listen, my brother didn’t want to-”

The few other people in the library had run over to the group, some running off for guards, some checking on the elf. The human swung the butt of her blade at Roman’s head. She missed and Roman let the guitar fall to grab her hand. “Sleep!” The woman fell unconscious in his arms.

“I didn’t mean to do that,” Remus said.

“I know, don’t-” he cut himself off when the body of the human started to change. The pale skin went white, as did her hair. Roman dropped her and screamed.

* * *

As she walked down the street with Patton, Vira’s eyes scanned the area for any possible danger. They’d heard rumors during their travels of humans and other non-elven races being treated unfairly in Mynoro, though so far they’d found no obvious signs of corruption. That had led her firbolg friend to suggest she not wear her armor for the day. Perhaps that was scaring people off. Of course, she insisted on keeping her sword on her, which defeated the purpose of that, but Patton didn’t complain. The miniature roses that decorated her the hilt of her blade was the currently the only indicator she was a not just a simple warrior, but a servant of the deity Ikos. Patton wore a crown of miniature roses, as did all clerics of the deity.

“We can go back to get your armor if you want,” Patton said. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“No, it’s… It’s fine.” She ran her hand through her short black hair. “I’m fine.”

“Okay, I just wanted to offer. Where do you think-”

“Guards!” someone burst out of the town’s library screaming. Vira instinctually ran inside, as did some of the guards roaming nearby. She followed the sounds of screaming to the back of the library. A half-elf laid unconscious on the ground, dark skin and hair muddled with blood coming from a gash on her forehead. Two tieflings stood further away. The red one held the body of a human in his arms. Then the human’s form started to shift.

The red tiefling dropped her with a scream. “Changeling!” someone said and, yes, she did match that description perfectly, even down the black circles surrounding her eyes. Guards ran past her to restrain the changeling. One of the bystanders said something about gagging her since he’d heard changelings can hypnotize people with their voice. Vira had never heard that before, but did nothing to stop the guards from taking his advice. Instead, her eyes followed the tieflings as they ran off. 

She went to chase them and almost bumped into Patton. “What happened?” he asked. Vira moved out of the way for him. Patton always took the lead in cases like this. ‘I’ll find the tieflings later.’

“That changeling attacked the half-elf and then tried to get those two tieflings,” an elven woman said.

The accused woman started to wake up. Fortunately for the skittish guards, they’d already gotten chains on her wrists. Her eyes widened when she noticed her situation and she tried to fight out of the guard’s grasp. He kicked her in the shin. “Quit it!”

“Hey, don’t do that!” Patton said. He took a step forward. “She’s already chained up, you don’t need to be mean like that. Let me heal her before you take her away.”

The guard scoffed. “You want to heal this thing? Yeah, not happening.”

Vira put her hand on the hilt of her greatsword and stepped forward. ‘Don’t have a panic attack, Vira. You’re the one with the sword.’ “We are both servants of Ikos, Giver of Healing and Rest. You cannot deny one of their Clerics the opportunity to heal someone unless that person is an immediate threat to innocents.” The speech was rehearsed, and likely sounded such, but the guards moved anyway. 

As Patton healed the glaring changeling, Vira focused her attention on the half-elf. One Cure Wounds was enough to close her head wound and bring her back to consciousness. “What happened?” she asked.

Vira looked over her shoulder. Patton had finished healing the pissed-off-but-no-longer-resisting changeling and the guards were dragging her away. The crowd dispersed after that, likely to gossip with their friends. “Does she need more healing?” Patton asked.

“I think she’s good.” Virgil helped her to her feet. She muttered something under her breath. “What?”

“I’d rather you use ‘they’ for the time being.”

Vira nodded. She awkwardly took a step back to let Patton take over. “Can you talk to us? We wanna know what happened.”

“Um, are you…?” They looked up at Patton’s flower crown. “Ah, a Cleric of Ikos. That makes sense. I can talk to you, but I have no way of knowing what happened once I fell unconscious.” She looked around. “Where is Janus? She’s human, blonde.” ‘... Oh, this just got way more complicated.’

“Is that your friend?” Patton bit his lip and looked around. “I don’t see anyone.”

“I know who they’re talking about,” Vira said. “Let’s talk somewhere more quiet before hunting down some tieflings.”

* * *

“That. was. a. changeling!” Remus squealed once they made it to their inn room. “Changelings are so cool! You can just look like whatever you want. You would be a dragonborn. I’ve always wanted to be a dragonborn!”

Roman started opening draws and emptying them into each of their travel bags. “I’m happy you’re happy, and I’m really happy she was there to take the fall for us, but we need to leave before they wake that elf up and you get in trouble.”

“I’m pretty sure that was a half-elf. Ears weren’t as pointy as they should've been.”

“Fine, half-elf. Either way, you shot Poison Spray and we need to leave.”

He frowned. In the excitement of finally meeting a changeling, he’d forgotten about his wild magic incident. “I’m sorry. I was trying to cast Mage Hand to slow the fall a little, but…”

“Don’t apologize. Just remember to think about what you want to do clearly before casting. For now, let’s ditch town and I can find a new job. I don’t like playing in libraries, anyway. There’s no one there to appreciate my art. It’s just background noise.”

“It’s the best background noise.” Remus booped him on the nose. “Okay, let’s get packed up.”

It took them about half an hour to clean out the room, discussing the benefits of being a changeling as they did so.“They can make their biceps super big if they want to.  _ They can also make other things big if they want to. _ ” Just as they were about to leave, they heard a knock on the door.

“Disguise Self, elf,” Roman whispered in his ear. He changed his appearance to look like a plain elf with long black hair and casual clothing. Remus did the exact same with a slightly different face structure. He also made himself a bit taller.

Roman opened the door. Standing outside was a gray-furred firbolg, a pale human wearing dark purple and black armor, and the half-elf from earlier. He waved at them. “Hello, how can we help you?”

The firbolg reached forward and touched Roman’s horn through the Illusion spell. “You were right, Vira. They did try Disguise Self.”

“Would have been real embarrassing if we were wrong,” the human said.

Sighing, Roman dropped the spell. Remus did the same and moved to stand next to his brother. “Remus didn’t mean to hurt anyone. I can explain if you come inside.”

Roman moved aside to let them in. They did so, the half-elf staring at their packed bags. The human stood by the door as a clear sign that the brothers were not allowed to leave until this conversation was over. “My name is Patton Heilen,” the firbolg said. He gestured to the half-elf. “This is Lorian and our friend by the door is Vira Enatsu. You don’t need to be worried right now.. We just wanna know what happened.” Remus stepped back to let Roman do the talking. He was always much better at it than he was.

“That was wild magic. Our family has some draconic blood in us, which sometimes makes us sorcerers. Remus is the first of those we’ve had in a long time.”

“A green dragon, I assume,” Lorian said. “That explains the Poison Spray.”

“Right. Sometimes when he casts too quickly or something like that, the spell doesn’t come out right. He was trying to help.”

“I wanted to use Mage Hand to make you fall slower,” Remus said.

Lorian tilted their head. “I’m not sure if that would have worked, since I’ve never used the spell for such a purpose. Still, thank you for trying to help.” Remus smiled. ‘People never thank me for things like that…’

“Okay, it sounds like this was a big misunderstanding, right?” Patton asked. Everyone nodded. “Good. Vira and I are gonna go talk to the guards about letting Janus, the changeling, go. Anyone can come or not come, though it’d help if Lorian and… Remus, right?” Remus nodded. “If the two of you could come.”

Roman nodded at the bags. “We were going to leave town. Things are always bad after people see Remus’s wild magic.”

“We’re not gonna stop you. Vira and I will probably leave soon, too. Lorian also talked about leaving, so we can all leave together if you want. It will probably be safer. We can take you to a town that’s more accepting than this one.”

Lorian nodded. “I’m not interested in staying in a town where everyone will be asking me questions constantly.”

“So, are you interested?”

Roman and Remus made eye contact with one another, as if trying to communicate with their thoughts. They’d traveled with just each other so long it was hard to imagine joining others. On the other hand, safety in numbers was always a good idea. Plus, maybe that changeling will want to be with them, too. “Okay, let’s do it.”

* * *

The group sat in the hall outside a mini courtroom where they could ask for Janus to be released. Patton watched Vira as she paced the room. Meeting all of these new people, plus offering to escort them somewhere safer, had to have set off her social anxiety. ‘Just wait a little while longer, V.’

“Hey, Ikos is all about healing, right?” Roman asked.

“They are the Giver of Healing and Rest, so yeah.”

“Then why are you two doing all of this? I don’t know much about religion, but it kinda seems a bit out of your area.”

Patton smiled, happy for any opportunity to talk about this. “Well, Ikos isn’t just about healing wounds and things like that. They’re also about healing hearts and healing the systems that keep on hurting people over and over again. As my old teacher liked to say, ‘What’s the point of refilling a cup if you haven’t plugged the hole in it yet?’”

“So, what, you both go to a bunch of cities plugging holes?” Remus laughed. “What- You know I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Vira and I don’t plug the holes,” Patton continued. “We’ll try and help fix any problems we see, but we never try to take down entire corrupt systems by ourselves. I’m pretty sure getting Janus out won’t be hard since they know not listening to a Servant Ikos will make them look worse than they already do, but I also don’t think it will make the people here stop arresting people with no evidence. Mostly, we look for the holes in towns we visit and tell our temple about them when we get back. The Servants of Ikos work together with the Servants of Alyth, Giver of Honesty and Justice, and the Servants of Malin, Giver of Order and Control, to make sure the government works for the people, not against them.”

“Huh, that’s… really cool.”

Patton shrugged. “I was just gonna stay at the temple and work to be the head healer. When Vira told me she was interested in traveling, I couldn’t let my kiddo go off on her own.”

“Wait, you’re-”

A guard came through the doors. “We’re ready for you.”

Patton got up and gave Roman a smile. “Story for another time.”

* * *

Janus hated people watching her almost as much as she hated being chained down. Getting arrested for the crime of being a changeling often resulted in both. ‘At least the gag is new.’ She glared at the guard assigned to her cell. Her usual strategy in situations like this was to scare those detaining her into running for backup, making her escape that much easier. Not having the ability to talk made that a lot harder.

Someone screamed from another cell and Janus flinched. Her mind flashed back to her first prison, which was arguably also her first home. She shook the thoughts out of her head. She knew what the government did to those like her and refused to ever go back to that. One way or another, she was getting out of this cell.

As she not-so-patiently waited for the guard’s attention on her to waiver so she could make her move, another person came over and whispered in the guard’s ear. She almost fell off her chair in her haste to stand up as the new individual unlocked the door. ‘What? There’s no way they're ready for transport already.’ “Get up, changeling.” He ripped the gag out of her mouth.

“Of course, let me just use my super strength no changeling has to do that for you.” She raddled the chains keeping her on the ground. Rolling his eyes, the new person gestured for the guard to undo the restraints. Her hands shook as she did so.

“You’re free to go for now.” Janus froze as she used to wall to help herself stand again. “New evidence has been brought forth for your case. Please return to your home immediately.” Janus nodded and hurried to the door. He caught her arm before she could make it all the way out of the room. “We’ll be keeping an eye on you, though. We know where you live. Anything out of place and you’ll be right back in here.”

She took off running the second he let go. She had no idea why this was happening and really couldn’t bring herself to care. She’d make it to her home, pack up her things, and run to the next town. The normal “Operation: get the hell out of here” protocol.

She shifted the moment the door to her home clothes behind her. She was an elf this time with short red hair and copper skin. Just as she finished changing into her light black armor when she heard a knock on her door. She froze, knowing it was useless to do so. ‘What are people doing here already? Am I not allowed to shift?’

“Janus? Are you in here?” a familiar voice asked. 

‘Lorain?’ She listened with her ear against her outer wall but heard nothing else. She opened the door and saw five people on the other side: Lorian, the two tieflings that caused this whole mess, that human she saw before being dragged off, and the firbolg that healed her. “If this is a welcome home party, thank you but please leave. I’m packing right now.”

“I figured you would want to do that,” Lorian said. “That is why I wished to offer you a place among us. We will be traveling to a place Vira and Patton,” she gestured at the human and the firbolg respectively, “assure us is safe for races that often face discrimination. Though I am only traveling with them because I lack needed equipment and would rather not stay in this town after today, I believe it would help you immensely.”

Janus laughed. “Yes, of course, a place in this kingdom that’s safe for changelings, a race every single head guard has been told to arrest and send to the capital. Weird that I hadn’t managed to find it throughout my years and years of travels.”

The firbolg, Patton, frowned. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“That’s because you aren’t supposed to. I don’t know how I got out this time, but it won’t be long before I get arrested for being within a mile of a burglary.”

He smiled. “Don’t worry, we won’t let that happen.” He said that with such kindness and certainty that Janus almost believed him. Almost.

“I’m not about to let myself get my hopes up just because a bunch of strangers pinky sweared, especially since two of them are the reason I got caught in the first place.”

The red tiefling stepped forward. “Okay, that’s… fair, but it wasn’t Remus’ fault. It was wild magic. Also, Patton and Vira are the reasons you got out in the first place. No one is going to arrest you for no reason with them around.” The green one peaked out from being his brother and waved wildly. 

‘Oh, blessed deities, why am I considering this?’ “I’ll go, if and only if one of you helps me pack and we leave within the hour.”

“What? Why are you making demands? They’re doing you a favor.”

“Now now, Roman, don’t be like that. I’m just happy she’ll be coming along.” Patton put a hand on Roman’s shoulder before nodding at Janus. “Sounds like a deal!”

Vira, who’d been oddly quiet this entire time, entered the room and walked over to the bags Janus had already started packing. She looked back at Janus as if awaiting exact instructions. “Nothing’s fragile, so just fit everything in best you can.”

She looked over the rest of the group. Lorian was the only one she was certain she liked, thought Vira and Patton did apparently help her a lot. Feeling guilty for exploiting the pair’s kindness, she interrupted Vira’s packing. “Let me do it. You all should just focus on getting a cart ready.” Vira nodded and walked past her without a word.

“Okay, see you in a couple minutes,” Patton said. Everyone left, Remus giving her the world’s most enthusiastic wave before disappearing past the window. ‘What have I gotten myself into?’

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm always looking to improve, so feel free to leave your criticisms/questions in the comments or message me on my Tumblr. Link to that: https://nerdywriterhaven.tumblr.com/  
> I really hope you all liked this. This took me a long time to write because I spent pretty much the entire time going "This is only good to me. No one else will like it." I really hope I'm wrong about that. Please let me know what you think. Thank you!


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